College football notebook: Andersen couldn’t resist Wisconsin

Enlarge ImageJody Gomez | USA TODAYBrigham Young receiver JD Falslev is brought down after a short reception against San Diego State in the Poinsettia Bowl. BYU won the game 23-6.

Several schools tried to lure Gary Andersen away from Utah State.

Wisconsin finally got him.

Andersen was officially hired as the Badgers’ new coach yesterday and will be formally introduced at a news conference this morning. He succeeds Bret Bielema, who left for Arkansas this month.

“I don’t know if I can really have a word for how excited I am to be at Wisconsin and have this opportunity,” Andersen said in a video on the university’s website. “I know I’m humbled, I know I’m blessed.”

Andersen, 48, just completed his fourth and best season at Utah State. The 18th-ranked Aggies finished 11-2 with a bowl victory over Toledo and won the Western Athletic Conference.

One of those losses was at Wisconsin, where the Aggies missed a 37-yard field-goal attempt in the final seconds to allow the Badgers to escape with a 16-14 win.

Andersen drew interest from California, Colorado and Kentucky last month, but he decided to pass on those opportunities and received a contract extension from Utah State.

When Wisconsin called, however, Andersen couldn’t resist.

“As soon as this one popped open, to me, this was a special, special place,” he said in the video.

Although this will be Andersen’s first job in the Midwest, one Big Ten opponent has no doubt he can succeed. When athletic director Barry Alvarez was considering Andersen, he called Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who had Andersen on his staff at Utah in 2004, when the Utes went 12-0.

“(Meyer has) had some very good assistants,” Alvarez said. “Urban told me that Gary is in the top five of all of them; he’s the real deal.”

Brigham Young rides defense to victory in Poinsettia Bowl

Linebacker Kyle Van Noy forced a fumble in the end zone and recovered it for a touchdown and also scored on a 17-yard interception return, both in the fourth quarter, to lead Brigham Young to a 23-6 victory over San Diego State in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.

The big plays swung the momentum for the Cougars (8-5) in what had been a tedious defensive struggle. San Diego State (9-4), playing in the hometown bowl for the second time in three years, missed the chance for its first

10-win season since 1977 and had its seven-game winning streak snapped.

Van Noy scored the game’s first TD when he came free and hit Aztecs quarterback Adam Dingwell in the end zone, forcing and recovering a fumble for a 10-6 lead.

Dingwell fumbled the snap on San Diego State’s next play from scrimmage and the ball was recovered by Jordan Johnson at the 14. Jamaal Williams scored on a run up the middle on the next play, BYU’s second touchdown in 17 seconds.

Former Buckeyes player joins North Carolina State staff

Former Ohio State player Richard McNutt is going with coach Dave Doeren from Northern Illinois to North Carolina State and will serve as cornerbacks coach for the Wolfpack.

McNutt played at Ohio State in the early 2000s and was on the Buckeyes’ national championship team in 2002, but injuries cut short his playing career.

He spent the past two years as an assistant at Northern Illinois, helping the Huskies win consecutive Mid-American Conference titles. Previously, McNutt spent two seasons as an assistant at Kent State, one season on the staff of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and one season each at Toledo and Virginia Military Institute.

Lynch returns for second tenure as DePauw coach

DePauw hired Bill Lynch as its new coach — for the second time.

Lynch, 58, went 8-2 with DePauw in 2004 before becoming the offensive coordinator at Indiana under the late Terry Hoeppner. Lynch was promoted to interim head coach in 2007 after Hoeppner’s death and took the Hoosiers to their first bowl game since 1993.

He kept the head-coaching job until being fired after the 2010 season.

DePauw, located in Greencastle, Ind., is a Division III school and a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference, which includes Ohio Wesleyan, Denison and Kenyon.